Staniel Cay - St. Patrick's Day

You can tell we had lost track of the days since someone said "hey, there will be a happy hour at the marina on Friday -- wear green." And we were like, huh? Green? Why? And then we checked the calendar and sure enough it was St. Patrick's Day! So we went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club wearing our only green shirts and met up with some new friends -- Larry & Tracy from "Soulmatie" and Don & Kim from "Paragon" (another Manta catamaran). They had drink specials and free appetizers which of course we took advantage of. The wings were pretty good, not Native New Yorker good (what DO they put in that sauce?), but satisfying nonetheless. And of course as a throwback to my college years I did order a green beer which was basically a bottle of Kalik with a drop of green food coloring. What do you expect? If they dyed a whole keg you know the locals would probably still be drinking green beer two weeks from now...

After that we all headed over to the big barbecue at Club Thunderball. Another family was added to our group -- Stacey, Patty, and Trisha who did not arrive by boat but instead flew their plane here all the way from Iowa (with a few stops of course). They are "cruising" the Bahamas in their own fashion, airstrip to airstrip. Well for dinner Chef David cooked up enough ribs, chicken, baked potato, salad, and corn on the cob for pretty much the whole island. We even spoke with some people from other islands who had made the trip to Staniel Cay just to have some bbq. I am amazed at all the expats who live here. If you looked around the room you'd mostly see Americans, many of them retirement age, who had all bought property here and built a house to live in either full or part-time. Of course the property may be inexpensive but the materials for the houses cost a pretty penny since every 2x4, nail, and roof shingle has to be shipped in here from somewhere else. But every person we talked to said that it was worth it to live in such a happy laid-back place with a tight-knit community and zero crime. They don't even have a police department here as far as I could tell.

Anyway, dinner was delicious (as is any dinner not cooked by me). Plus, someone else did the dishes so even if the meal hadn't been delicious I still wouldn't complain. Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!